Reflections on Elizabeth Bishop’s The Fish

刘璐

Elizabeth Bishop is considered the most prominent poetess after Emily Dickinson and Marianne Moore in American poetry in the 20th century. The Fish is the most representative among the early poems in Bishops voice. This paper intends to take The Fish as an example to do a close text analysis of it especially from its language features.

The Fish is well-developed by Bishops ground narrative language as well as her dramatic figurative language. In the first 9 lines， Bishop provides a setting in a straight-forward narrative way to point out that the fish didnt fight at all. In line10-21， Bishop employs simile three times to describe vividly the fishs appearance whose pattern is like “wall paper” and shape is like “roses”. In these similes， Bishop endows the fish with different life forms in which “wall paper” is artificial and man-made， whereas “full-blown roses” and “rosettes of lime” is full of natural sense， hopeful and energetic. In line22-33， the metaphorically feather-like flesh and peony-like swim-bladder hit readers mind with deep impression. In line 34-44， Bishop returns to the narrative telling of the eye contact between the speaker and the fish， which is the first interaction between the seemingly lifeless and hopeless fish and the dominant and victorious speaker. Then in line45-64， Bishop carries out a heroic image of fish warrior with thorough descriptive language as well as fantastic imagination which wholly subverts the previous weak image of the fish. In line65-75， the speakers epiphany together with the emotion develops to the utmost in the combination with narrative language and figurative language in which Bishops outstanding use of language is fully demonstrated to readers.

Besides the different language style， Bishops language is also full of tension in this poem where a large amount of contrasts and comparisons are used to fulfill the tension. In The Fish， Bishop creates several types of contrasts including contrast between human and subhuman as well as contrast between human and nature. On the one hand， the speaker endows the fish with human quality； on the other hand， he still regards it as an unhuman object. In line45-49， the speaker begins to show respect to the fish with admiration when he looks at the fishs “face”， but he immediately contradicts his attitude by indicating that the fishs jaw is just a kind of “mechanism”. He first calls it a “lip” and then ridicules the fish in a satirized way by saying “if you could call it a lip”. A nervous tense between human and subhuman then unfolded to readers eyes. Not only is it easy to observe the confrontation between human and unhuman in this poem， but the struggle between human and nature is also an important concern of this poem. It is the authors opinion that there are totally four times for the speaker to interact with the fish directly in this poem and each time is a confrontation between human being and nature. The first interaction is in line1-6 when the speaker held the fish half out of water and started to observe the fish. At this time， the fish left his first impression with a defeated loser who didnt fight at all for survival， lifeless and hopeless without any struggle. Nature seems to be governed by human being to whom everything is in hand and is ruled without a shadow of doubt. The second interaction is in line 22-33 when the speaker realized that the fishs gill can cut badly and remind him of frightening blood and flesh. The fish which is the symbol of nature seems to have some resisting power that can threaten human being to some extent. The third interaction is when the speaker noticed that the fish had experienced a lot before he was caught and began to admire the fish as a heroic hero. A simile “like medals with their ribbons” in line61 is used by Bishop to reveal that the nature is also full of wisdom and courage and worthwhile human beings respect and admiration. And until the fourth interaction when the speaker decided to release the fish， nature finally overmaster human being and won back its dignity.

Contrast in this poem also lies in the fish itself in which readers may find many binary opposites. In line7-10， the fish lefts his first impression to the speaker with “grunting weight”， “battered” and “homely” which is a typical characteristics of a loser. Meanwhile， however， the speaker also regards it “venerable” which is conversely the feature of someone respected. Bishop gives readers a mixture feeling towards the fish in both a negative and positive way and therefore enhances the sense of mystery upon this special fish. In line10-33， the poet gives detailed and vivid description to the fishs outlooking and appearance with delicate words like “ancient wallpaper”， “full-blown roses”， “fine rosettes” and “big peony”. However， in contrast to these splendid expressions， there are also grotesque words like “blood”， “entails”， “bones” and “swim-bladder” mingled with delicate elements. Delicate language interwoven with grotesque language offers the poem with great tension and power so as to attract readers to explore more in depths. Readers may always find that Bishop in her description of the fish uses a lot of binary opposite expressions. Except for the previous examples， there are also expressions like “pink” swim-bladder， and big “peony” which symbolizes feminine features and subordinate position. However， Bishop also uses the word “he” to refer to the fish whose image is not only personified but also masculinized. Both feminine features and masculine features are granted to the fish which means that the fish has two genders and therefore is hermaphroditic. The bi-gender fish challenges the conventional concept that masculine human culture dominates over feminine nature， leading to the master-subordinate relationship then be put into question.

Bishop always has a sharp perception upon ordinary life， depicting it with detailed observation but also keeping a rational distance from it. She regards nature as the way it is rather than something meaningful granted by human-made religion. In her writing， readers can not only observe life with most vivid details but also obtain new perspectives about relationship among life， human and nature.

References：

[1]Dorescki，C.K.Elizabeth Bishop：The Restraints of Language[M].New York：Oxford University Press，1993.

[2]Pickard，Zachariah.Elizabeth Bishops Poetics of Description[M].Ontario：McGill-Queens University Press，2009.

[3]伊丽莎白，毕晓普.丁丽英译.伊丽莎白.毕晓普诗选[M].石家庄：河北教育出版社，2002.